I wrote about how to learn why we're so emotionally moved by music: by studying those who don't care for it at all.

Animals greetings are common, but it was long thought that only humans say goodbye. I wrote about the search for the elusive nonhuman goodbye, and how weird our farewells are if you stop to think about them: www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

When a French village became an ALS hot spot, neurologists found that the patients consistently ate three foods. Shayla Love traveled there to investigate: Revisit the story from March, which became one of The Atlantic’s most-read articles of 2025: theatln.tc/DpPZNmMC

The theory of cognitive dissonance has become ubiquitous—but newly released documents seem to debunk the concept’s foundational case study. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Over the summer, I went to a small Norwegian island where the sun doesn't set for weeks on end. I tried my best to live without the clock, and confront my relationship with time.

I wrote about new revelations about the influential study of a UFO doomsday group from the 1950s, and the book When Prophecy Fails. Come for the aliens, stay to ponder a difficult question: what do people do when they're confronted with inconsistency? www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Starting this month, I'm a contributing writer at The Microdose! I'll be working on 5 Questions; my first asks Lucas Richert about Ritalin-assisted therapy. themicrodose.substack.com/p/ritalin-as...

For @us.theguardian.com I wrote about "paradoxical insomnia"—the strange experience of being asleep but not *knowing* you're asleep

For NatGeo I wrote about a neuroscientist trying to understand religious belief through the study of miracles www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

I went to a pop-up city on an island off the coast of Honduras, which bills itself as a hub for fast-tracking longevity drugs. I wrote about what I found there for @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2011...

Our food may soon look very different if synthetic dyes are eliminated. For @newyorker.com I wrote about the hunt for stable natural colorants: www.newyorker.com/science/elem...

How much is the psychedelic experience influenced by what we see, hear and read? We made a way to measure it: The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire - developed by Audrey Evers, Chris Kelly, @shaylalove.bsky.social , @tehseennoorani.bsky.social, validated on >600 respondents. Link below:

Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like “blue zones,” the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/1883...

Last December, I went to the French Alps to write about a medical mystery: In a small village, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with ALS, 10x higher than expected. This is the result of a decade-long investigation to try to understand why. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Insects are small, they don’t scream or bleed red, and many are considered pests; we tend to kill or mutilate them without pause. For @newyorker.com I wrote about the investigations into whether insects feel pain. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

On today's edition of '100 Years of 100 Things', @shaylalove.bsky.social connected the rise of RFK jr. to the wellness trends in American history. www.wnyc.org/story/100-ye...

Nothing could be more delightful than reading @shaylalove.bsky.social on 19th century wellness influencers, and their spiritual successor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Our Goop-ified health world may seem fundamentally modern, but there is a direct line between today’s wellness industry and the mid-1800s/ early 20th century. I wrote how the history of wellness is the best way to understand RFK Jr.'s appeal: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like “blue zones,” the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/1883...

If you, too, enjoy "is this grift?" stories that move from immortality desires to research errors to the Aspen Ideas Festival to our ambivalent relationship to modernity, you must MUST read this @shaylalove.bsky.social piece on the Blue Zones scandal. It's got it all. newrepublic.com/article/1883...

I talked to @shaylalove.bsky.social about the paradox of non-psychedelic trips www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Modern psychedelic users and advocates, as a group, have no consistent political slant. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

I wrote about the growing overlap between psychedelic and longevity communities. As Bryan Johnson told me: “Psychedelics and longevity seem like long-lost best friends.” www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

I love this story by @shaylalove.bsky.social so much!!!! www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a4...

Louise Glück 🖤

The sensation we call dizziness is a sort of general alarm system for the body—but just as a fire alarm can’t tell you where a fire is burning (or whether someone walked through the emergency exit by mistake), it doesn’t necessarily tell you what’s wrong. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

Them: "Oh so you're an academic, what are some of your sayings?" Me:

For Scientific American, I went to the Chelsea Physic Garden in London—a botanical haven filled with poisonous and medicinal plants 🌱🌿🪴 open.spotify.com/episode/0iIt...

Neurologist Harold Wolff on "migraine personality" and fashion choices: "Among the men polished shoes, pressed trousers and neatly arranged neckwear and hair were conspicuous. The women sometimes sacrificed a degree of attractiveness for austerity or severe neatness." psyche.co/ideas/can-a-...

favorite quotes from this piece: “Holes require a host...Doughnut holes require a doughnut."—Chaz Firestone Absences (shadows, holes, silence) are "like the fruit flies of metaphysics."— Roy Sorensen https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-actually-hear-silence/

I saw Freud’s favorite statue up close: Athena. When he fled from Vienna to London, he asked Maria Bonaparte to smuggle it out in her pocket. Freud referred to it as a symbol of women’s penis envy, because she is missing her spear